Saturday, 28 January 2012

Days of being a tourist in my own village

We've got a houseful again, and it's great having friends and family to stay. And not just for the sheer pleasure of seeing them, of catching up on all the news and having a laugh either.

No, it's seeing where I live through their eyes. The mundane, the usual, the places and things I know and love but perhaps take for granted suddenly become different .

For example, I love the view from my kitchen window. It changes every day according to season, to light, to the mood of the weather.Every morning as soon as I wake up I look out while the kettle 's boiling and I scan the horizon....

But last weekend, our visitors arrived on Friday night...it was dark. When one of them wandered into the kitchen the next morning , it was light and as he looked out of the windows he literally jumped."Wow, I didn't expect this" he said, and I felt lucky all day.Lucky to be able to wake up everymorning and drink in the view.

Similarly, a walk around the village with my friends and seeing it through their eyes makes me fall in love with the place all over again.It's only small..there are 26 houses and a church.It's a conservation village, set in beautiful countryside.I know that. I love this place.But I appreciate it even more after friends see it for the first time.

Would you like a quick look at what I saw this morning on my quick solitary walk in the sunshine?

Here's our 12th century church...so simple yet so serene.....

Our mud thatched wall around the church is rather rare....

Obviously posting a letter is a regular event. Our village postbox is very old, and has the tiniest slot to post cards and letters through .I actually have to fold some cards in half to post them, and it's always muddy by there...but when some American friends virtually had orgasms about "the most darling little Victorian post box, "I glowed with pride..

I love where I live......and being a tourist in my own village reaffirms that love every time.

I wonder what makes you look differently at where you live?

Today's track, 'Tourist by Athlete' I must have seen this band at least ten times live and they always give a good performance-always a joy to watch them.